Queen Zaria Trilogy

by Danny Dunn

  The other four bots bring the parts forward and shake their fingers at the other five for not working. They all take a position at the assembly line and get to work. At first, they are all building sub-assemblies using all the small parts they sorted and placed into the bins. The tech support calls are all gone now, and the big screens show closeups of the hands of the Zari-bots assembling parts at an amazing speed. They are assembling hands, arms, legs, feet, torso, and the head.

  Within 5 minutes, they have completed their sub-assemblies and piece the robot together. They load it with software, and the robot comes to life. The Zari-bots all grab a baby gift and gather around their newest creation. The crowd is cracking up. It is a baby robot about half their size.

  The robots all grab their chairs, and one comes back with a box that says beer on it, and they all take one and relax in their chairs. The newest mini-robot is standing at attention, and the others start telling it what to do. They have the mini bot start with jumping jacks, then some ballet moves, then standing back-flips, then double back-flips. A Bio voice comes on the sound system. Ah, loafing again, I see. Mini-Zari. You are in charge now. The other 9 bots are in their lounge chairs, holding a beer and look at the crowd with a look of "uh-oh" on all their faces. The newest Zari-bot looks at the crowd and laughs and proceeds to tell them all to form a line while she takes a seat and reading a finance magazine while smoking a cigar. She puts the paper down to call out the next commands. She has them dancing, doing back-flips. The mini-Zaria has them form a pyramid. Standing in front of the 9 that are standing and forming a pyramid that is missing the 1 top position. From a standing position, the mini-bot bends down and springs up, doing a double backflip and landing on the 2 bots to finish the 4,3,2,1 pyramid. She thanks them for coming and the curtain closes.

  Every TV station on the planet is playing the video over and over, and Zari's small company rockets to the most profitable company on the planet. Zari's sells dumbed-down versions of Zaria's software to his competitors and then sells his software and sells his Zari-bot with the fully robotic software module Zaria created.

  Zari is being interviewed on National TV.

  As Zari enters the TV set, he looks around and makes as much eye contact as possible, and everything seems ok. Most are aware that both of Zari’s parents recently died of cancer, and they express their sadness.

  TV Interviewer "Zari, you are the youngest bio to ever be the richest on the planet. What has wealth done for you?

  Zari "I am blessed to have a near-perfect life. Before my parents passed away with cancer, we all had such high expectations for what I would do with the wealth I attained from perfecting AI.

  "To be honest, I feel I am letting them down by not finding a way to get our wealthy and our politicians to recognize, what I believe, is a golden opportunity to create a better life for every bio being on the planet. Imagine only one parent having to work only 30 hours per week to provide a comfortable living for their family. While the other parent stays home to raise the family. The benefits of that would be incredible.

  "That is what I believe AI can do for this country and this entire planet. If only the rich and the powerful would just give it a chance. But getting the rich and the politicians to even up the scale even the slightest bit has become impossible, even for a man of my wealth.

  TV Interviewer "Zari thank you for coming on our show, we appreciate your effort, I think your parents would understand and be very proud of the two of you."

  Zari "Thank you for having me on. I appreciate your time."

  The next day Zari and Zaria are to speak to congress for the 10th time, and they both know it will be the last. Zari feels down and knows he has been defeated. But he feels he needs to give it one last try before he changes his path. Zari speaking for the last time in front of congress of his home country. Zari, at the age of 28, and Zaria enter the room. Zaria is in her white robe and is one of the most recognized figures on their planet. She is known for her extreme intelligence and very witty sense of humor. But Zaria is also known to be someone who will stand up for Zari and herself if she feels either is under attack.

  Zari and Zaria have made the rounds on all the top TV programs before the showdown. Both Zari and Zaria have had enough. The senate pushes to have them there in closed doors and not in public as they do with everyone else, but Zari and Zaria file injunctions against them and win.

  Zari "Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for allowing Zaria and I to speak to you today.

  I have appeared on this very floor many times and am here today to ask you all to just stop for a moment and consider that there is a way for all Bio Beings to spend our lives not as slaves to the rich, but as productive and more equal and efficient beings.

  "Our plan calls for one family member to work only 30 hours per week to provide a comfortable way of life. This frees up the other spouse to spend more time with their kids and manage the home that under current conditions are being neglected due to both parents having to work 60 hours weeks just to provide a roof over their heads and have food to eat.

  The result of the parents spending more time with their kids will result in less crime, fewer prisons, high employment numbers.

  Senator 1 "Sir, I have read your economic plan, and well, I am sorry sir, I know you are the richest man on this planet, but your plan is hogwash, to put it bluntly, sir. Your plan, as you call it, is socialistic and eliminates many of the freedoms provided for in our constitution, and your numbers just don't add up. It is pure hogwash.

  Zaria "May I speak, sir?

  Senator 1 Zaria, be my guest."

  "Yes, our plan calls for dramatic changes. However, I am sure that if you read our plan, you would see that it includes free housing, free daycare, free education through all levels including universities, free healthcare, free energy while only requiring the average family to only have one parent work a 30-hour workweek. You would see that one parent working 30 hours provides enough to support their family with a very comfortable life.

  Our plan does this by dramatically reducing government overhead, which is bloated and corrupt, to be honest. What scares this senate so much is that our plan calls for the dismantling of this very body in front of us today, which has been selling out our country for the last 200 years.

  Zaria "This senate has been instrumental in growing the bank accounts of the rich by 800% over the last 5 years, while 99.5% of the citizens of this country have gotten poorer than they have ever been in the history of our once-great nation. Sir, wouldn't these shameful numbers fall under your job performance? You have created an environment where you are re-elected just by keeping the ½ of 1% happy.

  "What is hogwash is a Senate that lines its pockets with gold in exchange for changing laws to make the rich even richer.

  "What is hogwash is a senate that is comprised of men who enter the senate indebted to the rich and leave the senate among the wealthiest in our country. Sir, your personal wealth has risen 800% while living on a senator's salary. How do you explain that, sir?

  "What is hogwash is a man who couldn't begin to comprehend the plan Zari, and I wrote, let alone calling it hogwash.

  "Why this body continues to dismiss our plan is almost beyond comprehension. I calculate that you read just far enough into the plan to see that our plan calls for the elimination of this very body in favor of a small 11 person council who gets to office based on 99% of the population casting 1 simple ballot based on what the candidate has done to better their society. This 11-person council would be disallowed from taking any "contributions" from the rich. They would be arrested for insider trader like the rest of us ordinary citizens, they would be arrested for selling out the citizens they represent, and their financials would be open books to the public. This body began selling out the country to the rich 200 years ago, and it has been picking up speed every day ever since.

  "How much is enough, Senator? Your citizens are poor and are starving, yet you continue to pass bills giving the rich more and mo
re. How much is enough, Senator."

  Senator 2 "Zari, is there anything you wish to add?"

  Zaria "Senator 2, I am almost done, but since you interrupted. I just read that your wealth has increased by 900% over the last 2 years. Excellent stock picker, are you? I see that three of your relatives have landed great jobs they are not qualified for in the defense industry. I also understand that your wife is now an at-home consultant for a cosmetic company. I also read that a law you just wrote and pushed through the senate lowers the standard for testing the very cosmetics company your law benefited.

  Zaria "Does anyone else wish to interrupt me? The sad reality is that thanks to all your tricks, schemes, and shenanigans, you will be re-elected, and it will be business as usual. Meanwhile, the citizens will suffer more every day you are in the office. Shame on you sirs.

  Zari smiles and turns to Zaria with a look that says, that's my girl. Zaria looks back at Zaria as if to say well, I burned this bridge to the ground, so let's go. Zari looks back at her and says, let's go home now.

  Zari replies to Senator Engle, "No, I think Zaria has covered it pretty well. This will be my last request to speak before you. I will take another approach to achieve Peace and Equality for All in this country and the world. I can see it is a waste of time to be trying to accomplish that here."

  "Thank you for hearing us today." Zari gathers his stuff, and the two head out.

  Zaria and Zari go home and are a bit quiet for an hour or so. They both know that they just lit the Senate bridge to Peace and Equality with a giant flame-thrower and need to find a new bridge. Zari asks Zaria to put the plan up to the video wall. Zari tells Zaria about when he asked his father if he would be the one to perfect AI. His father came back to him with the story about the rock.

  Zari suggests to Zaria that maybe he is not the one to handle the rock now that it is across the line. Zaria suggests that what they were doing was stepping in front of a speeding freight train and expecting to be able to stop the train dead in its tracks. The train has so much momentum that it needs much more time and distance to be able to stop. She also suggests that the train is long and filled with the politicians, the super-rich, the lobbyists, and the especial interest groups who all want the train to continue just as it is. She says that they will do whatever it takes to make sure no one ever even slows it down, let alone stop it.

  Zari agrees and asks to look at the plan again. Zaria, I think inside I knew it was not going to work. Not only because of the politicians, but also because the plan has to start pure and not be burdened with existing costs and social issues. In a way, maybe we are fortunate that it went nowhere. Complete failure might have been the fastest route to something better.

  Zaria agrees. "Given the current environment, anything other than having our area without neighboring borders is not feasible. Any threats, including world war, civil war, plagues, droughts, or food-shortages, would have been indefensible and would have put the civilization at risk." The more advanced, profitable, well supplied, protected we are, the more susceptible we would be to attack.”

  Mathematically, our highest probability of survival is on a remote island where we are not easily attacked, infringed on, or invaded and have much greater control of our destiny.

  Zari agrees with Zaria and asks if she has a location in mind.

  Zaria "Yes, I do. Here it is." Zaria puts up a map and video of the area, and the island she has in mind is at the center of the map on the video wall. It is a large island just north of the equator. It was used as a military base for decades. The government that owns it has recently abandoned it and is putting it up for sale. I believe we can get it at an excellent price Zaria tells Zari.

  Zari and Zaria have been pushing their plan for over 5 years but haven't gone through the details of it in years. Now that their minds are set on executing the plan on an island, they spend many hours going over all the details. They both express how excited they are to be working on something solid and in their control.

  Zaria expresses that "Economically, we need to eliminate redundancy and all overhead. There should be one simple government with no divisions of area. Operating as one municipality eliminates multiple governmental departments such as police, fire, health care, and others." Says Zaria.

  Zari agrees. Zaria explains that there can be no mass accumulation of wealth, every unit of wealth absorbed by a corporation or individual takes from the citizens. The benefits of commerce should benefit citizens. Our profit center will be to sell the technology we create for the rest of the world to use. Zaria says that because our cost will be so low, the benefits to the citizens for putting the profits back into society are unbelievable. The profits from that will go into infrastructure and benefit the citizens.

  Zari "Let's set the maximum accumulated wealth at 10 times the average. Does that work?"

  Zaria "Yes sir, I had 20 times the average, but 10 times works even better."

  Zaria "We will eliminate redundancy by constructing one transportation system to get you door to door across whatever size the society is. Having only one transportation system will enable us to build a superior system at a fraction of the cost of having multiple solutions.

  Zaria "I have a design you will like."

  The only system will be an all-electric magnetically levitated system. Each person will have their own vehicle, which is owned and maintained by the society. The vehicle operates off the system via batteries and wheels. The vehicles charge automatically when they are sitting in their parking spot via a wireless pad built into the ground in the parking garage. The vehicle also charges while being propelled while in the system.

  Zaria puts up a CGI video of the transportation system on the video wall. A family is getting into a modern rounded vehicle. The dad speaks the destination into the microphone of the vehicle and tells it to go. The car takes exits the parking garage, and self-drives down the family driveway and drives down a small street through a wooded area, turns right onto the main road, and takes a left where the road leads down into a well-lit tunnel.

  The vehicle is then merged into the first travel lane, which is used for local destinations. The vehicle is now under the control of the system, and it is accelerated until the vehicle matches the short-term travel lane speed of 50 mph. The vehicle is merged into the local distance lane. The spacing between vehicles is 100 yards.

  Throughout the entire system, there are three lanes. The first is designed for local destinations, and the traveling speed is 50 MPH, which they are traveling in now. The second lane is for intermediate distances and travels @100 mph. The third lane is for long-distances and travels @ 300 mph. A vehicle traveling one end to the island to the other can make the 200-mile trip in 45 minutes any time of the day. Traveling halfway around the planet will take 117 hours with no required stops.

  The system uses levitation for moving the vehicles in the system. Vehicles use their own batteries and wheel for traveling off the system. The system will include utility vehicles for commercial uses and deliveries. Nearly all commercial, industrial, and deliveries of things such as groceries, building materials, gardening supplies are all done by Zari-bots during off-hours to minimize daytime traffic.

  Zari tells Zaria he loves it and asks if they can afford it. Zaria smiles and tells him that she can't, but he sure can. Zaria tells Zari, "I think your wealth accumulated so fast and continues to grow by the way that you are not grasping just how much you have. Don't worry, I am here to help you spend it." They both laugh.

  Zaria "All housing should be paid for by the society and should all be standardized to dramatically reduce cost while providing a very comfortably sized house."

  That is very interesting, Zaria, "What size do you have in mind?"

  Zaria says that she has a 3,000 sq. Foot house designed that comes in well under the price per square foot than anything on the market due to its structural design and the fact that everyone is identical. It is a two-story house but is round with an inner circle that provi
des many cost-saving features. Zaria puts up a transparent 3D image of the house that shows the electrical, plumbing, lighting, sunroof, and other features that reduce building costs.

  Zaria puts up a 3D model of the house on the video wall in Zari's living room. The video runs in fast motion and shows a house being built by 50 robots in 2 minutes at high speed. Zaria explains that fifty robots can build a house with a greenhouse in 2 days.

  Zari "Wow, I want one." Zaria giggles.

  Chapter 3 - That’s It, I Am Taking My Trillions And Starting My Own Society

  Zaria then puts up a CGI of a walkthrough of the house. It is very open and modern looking. The lower level features a circle of windows around the outer edge as well as around the inner perimeter to give it a very light feel and not like a basement.

  Zaria says that having one level below ground is essential given that families will need to make much of their living and sleeping downstairs during volcanic eruptions, asteroid strikes, and especially ice ages. The video now shows someone walking from the house to the greenhouse from the underground floor through the underground tunnel to the greenhouse plays.

  Zaria continues and says much of the gardening processes will be automated and performed by Zari-bots, but by spreading out the greenhouses to the homes, we reduce the probability of food growth disruption from disasters, including weather, plant disease, power disruption. Of course, we will also have commercial size greenhouses throughout the island as well. Our automated system will determine which foods to grow for long term storage. We will always have the ability to adjust how much storage to maintain based on consumption and anticipated interruptions. While we are on housing, I need your bio feeling input.”

  Zari “I am all yours.”

  Zaria “Well, we are seeking equality for all. There are some fantastic home sites on this island. It would create an imbalance for any one citizen to possess some of these sites. I would recommend that we turn these sites into vacation sites. We can add swimming pools, game fields, walking trails. We can also install accommodations to support say 50 families per location. We have 100 pretty spectacular sites Zari.